Fearless is a site where you can access non-judgemental information and advice about crime and criminality. You can find more information here: Be FEARLESS against crime

All of our safeguarding processes and procedures conform to Keeping Children Safe in Education (2023):

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education–2

Please also see our our Child Protection Policy which can be found in the policies section of this website: https://www.hdhs.org.uk/parents/policies/

Further details can be found here: Child Sexual Exploitation and Mental Health in Schools

Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is child abuse and an extremely harmful practice with devastating health consequences for girls and women. Some girls die from blood loss or infection as a direct result of the procedure. Some women who have undergone FGM are also likely to find it difficult to give birth and many also suffer from long-term psychological trauma. For more information click the link FMG Additional Information or go to NWG Network

Here is some information regarding free online Relationships and Sex Education training workshops available for Essex parents and carers.

Click here

Parenting adolescents is not easy, there are many difficult topics and issues that need to be discussed and developing a good and open relationship is important for healthy development. This handbook aims to offer support to parents who may be finding their relationship with their teenage child difficult.

Click here

The symbol on the ‘Report Abuse’ button, which looks a bit like an eye on legs, represents the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), a group of law enforcement agencies who work together to fight online abuse relating to children. If you click on the button you will be reporting a problem directly to someone at CEOP (the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Agency). You are then likely to be contacted by a social worker or a police officer, to talk through your report in more detail. They need to do this to make sure you are safe. It is also a good idea to talk to your parents about your report to CEOP, although if your report concerns a family member, CEOP will not make contact with them until an investigation has been completed.

If you do not want to make a report by pressing the CEOP button but are still worried about something that is online, related to self harm, mental health or anything you consider abusive, then please talk to your Head of Year, Assistant Head of Year or Student Services Assistant at school, or to an adult you can trust. Alternatively, you can make a report 24/7 by clicking our ‘report an issue’ button and key people in the school will be notified straight away. This allows us to support you even more effectively.

You can also get guidance from NEFLT NHS Foundation Trust. Any young person up to the age of 18 (25 if you have Special Educational Needs) can contact NEFLT’s Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Service (EWMHS), or any parent, guardian or teacher of a young person who is experiencing emotional wellbeing and mental health difficulties.

You can find out more about NELFT by accessing: www.nelft.nhs.uk

Harwich and Dovercourt High School is a subscriber to the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL) who are international leaders in providing support to stay safe online.

Please use this link if you have any concerns, or require specialist advice on how to respond and deal with online issues.

http://swgfl.org.uk/products-services/esafety/resources

You can get support that relates to Facebook, AskFM and Sexting, amongst others. For families, there is a toolkit as well as more specific support for early years or older children progressing onto university.

REMEMBER: If in doubt, don’t hesitate to contact the school and we will support you.

The media is alive with reports of concern over radicalisation, extremism and terrorism.  Here is what to do if you have a concern of this nature: Reporting Radicalisation and Extremism

Our most recent Safeguarding updates can be found below:

Omegle Safeguarding Update 231120

Safeguarding updates – Autumn 2020

Safeguarding Alert 8th September 2020

End of term safeguarding update, July 2020

LGfL-DigiSafe-Parent-Letter-Safe-Online-Summer-2020

Safeguarding Update June 2020

Safeguarding Update May 2020

Safe in Essex

Safeguarding Update April 2020

Online Safety Think U Know

Safeguarding Concern re Yubo 30th January 2020

Safeguarding Concern re School Nurse Hoax January 2020

Safeguarding-Updates-November-2019

Safeguarding-Updates-October-2019

Safeguarding-Updates-September-2019

Someone taking an indecent image of themselves, and sending it to their friends or boy/girlfriend via a mobile phone or some other form of technology is sometimes referred to as ‘sexting’. Once these images have been taken and sent to others, control is lost of them and they can end up anywhere. They could be seen by friends and family, a future employer, or even, in some cases, end up in the possession of an offender!

This also puts the person who originally sent the images in a vulnerable position, as somebody they may or may not know now has these images and could use technology to bully, harass or even try to locate them. Just think – if you wouldn’t print and pass these images around your school or show your Mum or Dad, they are not appropriate to share via phone or other technologies.

Take 15 minutes to look through these advice videos produced by CEOP.

We are aware that many students have people in their “friends” list on social networking accounts who they do not actually know. We are advising all our students to delete “friends” from Facebook, or similar social networking accounts, if they do not know them in person, and are not actually friends with them.

More advice can be found here: Social Networking

*STOP PRESS* Do you really know what your children are doing online? You may have internet filters already in place; do you really know how secure the filters are? What are YOU doing to safeguard your youngsters’ electronic activity?

• http://www1.k9webprotection.com

As a school we have produced an E-Safety Advice Leaflet which can be downloaded here:  HDHS-E-Safety-Leaflet

At Harwich and Dovercourt High School we educate and protect our students in their use of ICT and the internet. We aim to constantly reinforce the responsibilities that our students have when surfing the web through ICT lessons, PSHE lessons and Community Assemblies.

“The risks that children face may have changed but basic parenting skills remain the same” is the central message from the UK’s national centre for child protection – the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre.

Further details can be found here:  Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre

i) Inform a member of the Safeguarding Team. The Safeguarding Team at HDHS are:

Miss C. Doyle – Deputy Headteacher and Designated Lead

Mrs N. Prior – Inclusion Manager and Deputy Safeguarding Lead

Mrs K. Finch – Headteacher

Mr. M. Higgon – Deputy Headteacher

Mr S. Garnham – Senior Assistant Headteacher

Mrs C. Elmer-May – CASA Manager

Mrs V Henderson – Director of Sixth Form

Mrs C. Manners – Assistant Headteacher/ Executive SENCo

Mr. C. Herron – Assistant Headteacher

Mrs S. Elmer – Children in Care Keyworker

Mrs. C. Farr – Maths Teacher

Mrs C. Dunkley – Attendance Officer

Ms A. Porter – Senior Leadership Team Assistant

Mr P. Ablett – Sixth Form Learning Mentor

ii) If you are concerned that a child or young person is being harmed or neglected, or is at risk of this, you should go to the Essex Effective Support website where you can make a referral to the Children and Families Hub.

Where a child is at immediate risk of significant harm, call the Children and Families Hub on 0345 603 7627 and ask for the ‘Priority Line’ or call the Police.

​(Out of Hours: [Mon-Thurs 5:00pm-9am. Fri & Bank Holidays 4:30pm-9am) 0345 606 1212 or Email: Emergency.DutyTeamOutOfHours@essex.gov.uk)

The Children and Families Hub also offers a consultation line for professionals providing advice and guidance. This can be accessed by calling 0345 603 7627 and asking for the ‘Consultation Line’.

Harwich and Dovercourt High School is committed to develop provision for young carers and their families.

We are determined to support young carers as well as we can.

How we will achieve this:

• The whole school is committed to meeting the needs of young carers so that they can attend and enjoy school in the same way as other pupils and achieve their potential.
• Appointing Mr Garnham as a designated Young Carers’ School Lead with responsibility for young carers and their families. Mr Garnham is available to support all young carers and will be supported in this by Mrs Helm.
• The school only shares information with professionals and agencies on a need to know basis in order to support pupils and their families.
• Harwich and Dovercourt High School will actively seek feedback and ideas from young carers and their families to shape and improve support.
• The school has an effective referral system and strong partnership in place with relevant external agencies, including referral to Young Carer agencies providing key workers who will work with young carers and families.

We will strive to achieve best practice for students and families in our school in order to provide them with the best chance of success in their future.